Unpacking the role of primary packaging material in designing green supply chains: An integrated approach

Ajinkya N. Tanksale, Debabrata Das, Priyanka Verma and Manoj Kumar Tiwari

International Journal of Production Economics, 2021, vol. 236, issue C

Abstract: Due to the adverse impact of packaging materials on several ecosystems, the circular and sustainable approaches to manage packaging waste have been receiving increasing attention worldwide. Plastic pails are widely used primary packaging materials that are cost-effective, lightweight, yet long-lasting. In the present study, we propose a closed-loop supply chain (CLSC) network design model to jointly optimize the decisions related to the location of collection, sorting, and recycling centers, and the quantity of plastic pales to be recycled and/or freshly produced and distributed. The proposed model is augmented with an incentive mechanism to acquire used plastic pails from customers as well as a green supplier selection procedure. In addition to the traditional objective of profit maximization, the proposed model also minimizes carbon emission, maximizes the return of used plastic pails, and prioritize suppliers for the procurement of sustainable packaging raw materials. A set of non-dominated solutions to the proposed multi-objective model are obtained using the Augmented ε-constraint method (AUGMECON). The results of AUGMECON are also compared with other methods such as weighted sum method and Augmented Tchebycheff method. It is oberseved that AUGMECON produces diverse set of pareto-optimal solutions for the considered problem. The applicability of the model is explained using an illustrative example of an adhesive manufacturer in India. Further, several managerial insights are drawn by carrying out sensitivity analysis through scenario building.

Keywords: Primary packaging; Closed-loop supply chain network design; Incentives; Supplier selection; Multi-objective optimization; Augmented ε-constraint method (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0925527321001092
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:proeco:v:236:y:2021:i:c:s0925527321001092

DOI: 10.1016/j.ijpe.2021.108133

Access Statistics for this article

International Journal of Production Economics is currently edited by Stefan Minner

More articles in International Journal of Production Economics from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().